[Sp00k]

Yeah red... Definitely good news for all iFP owners who've been asking for variable (+or- 25%) playback speed... I'm sure they're all whooping with joy... btw, are there any?... apart from koreans using it to learn a foreign language?

What would have been greeted with considerably more enthusiasm I suspect, would have been the implementation of a non-crippled recording bit-rate in the UMS firmware, as faithfully promised "in the future", back in October 2003, see foot of this page if you doubt it... Frankly, I can't see it ever happening now... and I think that most of us can guess why not.

Still... It's reassuring to know that iRiver programmers are still slaving-away to improve the firmware of the older models, it's good to know that we iFP-users are not forgotten. <- bitter sarcasm

After looking at this article and the 'Related story' below it, reading between the lines, the influence of the pigopolists of the music industry in Korea is becoming apparent. What if this is the reason for iRiver failing to meet the recent H-1-series firmware update schedule? What if they no longer provide any form of lossless recording in future? ... Don't forget that they've been in recent discussions with Micro$oft! ... I don't see the WAV codec mentioned in the H-3-series specs that I've read so far ... Though admittedly, this could be an accidental omission.

Don't for a minute think that iRiver aren't capable of, or wouldn't dare to cripple updated firmware, they are and they have... witness the iFP-series UMS firmware recording bit-rate limit!

Incidentally, your saying this... "Hmm.....this must mean that firmware for other iRiver devices might be due out shortly, now that the iFP's are out of the way." is equivalent to iFP-owners saying... "Great, now that H-1-series owners have lyric-support, iRiver can get on with the iFP UMS firmware updates!"

Caveat Emptor!